Americans United - John Lelandhttps://au.org/tags/john-leland
enExile Excitement: Some Fundamentalists Seek Escape From Decadent Societyhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exile-excitement-some-fundamentalists-seek-escape-from-decadent-society
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The neo-Puritans just can’t take all the secularism, false religions and general gayness that’s rippling through American culture right now. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>OK, now we’ve done it. Those of us who advocate things like separation of church and state, secular government, LGBT rights and self-determination when it comes to issues of sexuality have really torqued off the Religious Right – so much so that some of them are thinking of going into exile.</p><p>Don’t get too excited. It’s not like they are going to flee <em>en masse</em> to some forgotten island or anything. Rather, some folks on the far, far right of the theological spectrum seem to be contemplating a type of “internal exile.” They’d hole up in a fundamentalist denomination until this current age of wickedness blows over.</p><p>David Gibson of Religion News Service <a href="http://www.religionnews.com/2014/08/18/christian-conservatives-babylon/">described this phenomenon</a> recently. Gibson wrote that a strain of Religious Right activists is “feeling increasingly alienated and even persecuted in the society they once claimed as their own. They’re shifting to another favorite image from Scripture – that of the Babylonian exile, preparing, as the ancient Judeans did, to preserve their faith in a hostile world.”</p><p>Gibson quoted Carl Trueman, a professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pa. Picking up on the Religious Right’s increasingly popular persecution theme, Trueman carped, “We live in a time of exile. At least those of us do who hold to traditional Christian beliefs.” </p><p>Trueman made the comment in the journal <em>First Things</em>, an uber-Catholic publication that has long been the voice of those who pine for the 12th century and miss the days when no one dared question the local bishop lest they end up on a rack.</p><p>“[T]he Western public square,” Trueman bemoaned, “ is no longer a place where Christians feel they belong with any degree of comfort.”</p><p>Poor guy. Seems these neo-Puritans just can’t take all the secularism, false religions and general gayness that’s rippling through American culture right now. Worse yet, the Republicans, who were supposed to save us from all of this, seem more interested in slashing taxes and attacking the Affordable Care Act than ushering in the Second Coming.</p><p>No one appointed Trueman a spokesman for Christianity or even “traditional Christianity.” I know there are many good Christians who sharply disagree with him. But those in his camp are left with the question of what’s an upright (and uptight) fundamentalist to do these days?</p><p>I have a suggestion: Face a hard truth. It seems to me that you holier-than-thou types have been preachifying at us for a long time. It also seems to me that many of us have heard your message. (Believe me, we’ve heard it.)</p><p>Did it ever occur to you that maybe we are consciously rejecting it?</p><p>Perhaps we’re doing that because it’s not a very good message. All too often, it’s a message of division, a message of hate and a message of ignorance. It’s a message anchored in an intolerant past that we’re glad to have shed. We won’t go back. </p><p>I’d recommend that the fundamentalists preach a better message – but they don’t seem to have one. They can’t persuade us to voluntarily adopt their faith, and they’ve certainly tried to force us. But lately that hasn’t been working out too well for them, either.</p><p>What are their options? Well, the exile thing is certainly a possibility (although I find it amusing that the fundamentalists are already arguing among themselves about which right-wing religion is best to shelter them). But here’s another: Stop trying to run our lives. Mind your own business, and, for the most part, people will let you alone.</p><p>Bothered by gay sex? Don’t engage in it. Annoyed by books about evolution? Don’t read them. Discouraged because you don’t see enough evidence of your religion in public spots? Go to a place where you’re sure to find it – a church!</p><p>Gibson notes that these fundamentalists feel “alienated.” That could be, but they never seem to take the next step and ask why they’re feeling that way.</p><p>A little self-reflection is in order. The fundamentalists have no one but themselves to blame – because they peddle a crummy product. There’s a reason the period during which rigid religion ruled supreme is known as the “Dark Ages.” In more recent times in America and elsewhere, fundamentalist dominance spawned things like subjugation of women, censorship, anti-science views, coerced religious worship and suppression of other faiths.</p><p>The fundamentalists had their day, and they made a hash of it. So some people – I’m talking to you, Roger Williams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and John Leland – came up with a better option: religious and philosophical freedom for all backed by an officially secular government resting on a wall of separation between church and state.</p><p>Without apology, we can say that this way of doing things is demonstrably better. But there’s no reason for anyone to go into exile. Fundamentalists will always be free to go to church, proselytize (on their own time and with their own dime) and worship with like-minded believers as they see fit.</p><p>What they won’t be free to do is use the government to enforce a theology that most Americans have chosen not to adopt.</p><p>It’s a fair deal. But if it absolutely doesn’t please the Religious Right, I’m sure there’s still a forgotten island out there somewhere that can be fashioned into a theocratic utopia. Because those always work out so well, right? </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/first-things">First Things</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/carl-trueman">Carl Trueman</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/david-gibson">David Gibson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-madison">James Madison</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/roger-williams">Roger Williams</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/thomas-jefferson">thomas jefferson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span></div></div>Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:17:06 +0000Rob Boston10390 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/exile-excitement-some-fundamentalists-seek-escape-from-decadent-society#commentsState-Sponsored Supplications: Does The United States Really Need A National Day of Prayer?https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/state-sponsored-supplications-does-the-united-states-really-need-a-national
<a href="/about/people/james-c-nelson">James C. Nelson</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Creating any kind of a religious nation, Christian or otherwise, is exactly what the framers were trying to avoid when they drafted the First Amendment. And for good reason</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p align="left"><em>Editor’s Note: Today is the congressionally mandated National Day of Prayer. “The Wall of Separation” is pleased to offer this guest post by James C. Nelson, a retired justice of the Montana Supreme Court. Nelson was appointed to the court by</em> Gov. <em>Marc Racicot in 1993 and was reelected to the position three times, serving until his retirement in 2013. </em> </p><p align="left">Congress has proclaimed that the first Thursday in May – May 1, this year – be set aside as a National Day of Prayer. There will be prayer breakfasts and similar events conspicuously attended by elected officials, politicians and sectarian persona.</p><p align="left">But, should Congress and state officials be promoting prayer at all? According to the Constitution, no!</p><p align="left">The First Amendment guarantees two things: (1) that Congress will not prohibit the free exercise of religion; and (2) that Congress will make <em>no law</em> respecting an establishment of religion. These two clauses embody the wall separating church and state – a wall that is supposed to keep government out of religion, period.</p><p align="left">Why, then, did Congress create in 1952, and then codify in 1988, a “national” day of prayer? If your answer is, “True to the intentions of the Constitution’s framers, America is Christian Nation,” you’d be wrong. Indeed, creating any kind of a religious nation, Christian or otherwise, is exactly what the framers were trying to avoid when they drafted the First Amendment. And for good reason.</p><p align="left">At the time the First Amendment was adopted there actually were official state churches held over from colonial times. People were prosecuted and imprisoned for their religious practices and public statements at odds with those of the official or prevailing local religious views. Jews and Muslims were demonized and persecuted; Christians often violently disagreed over Biblical interpretation, religious doctrine and practice. Each sect had its own lock on the truth.</p><p align="left">In that historical context, and based on the views of men like Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson, John Leland, George Washington, and James Madison, the First Amendment’s religion clauses were drafted to guarantee freedom of belief and tolerance for all religions - -and to keep government out of that mix.</p><p align="left">Importantly, there is not one mention of God, Jesus, Christ, Christianity or prayer in the religion clauses. There are only two references to “religion” in the Constitution – one in the First Amendment and another in Article VI banning any religious test for public office.</p><p align="left">Indeed, the “Christian Nation” concept first came into existence during the Civil War – largely conceived and perpetuated by Northern ministers who, when the war was going badly, announced that the Union Army’s defeats were God’s punishment for ignoring God in the Constitution. But, when the tide of war shifted, these same ministers then proclaimed that God was rewarding the spiritually upright side of the conflict. Thus, America being founded as a “Christian Nation” is fiction. Worse than that, it is exactly contrary to what the framers were trying to negate in the First Amendment.</p><p align="left">So, besides violating the principle of separation of church and state, what’s wrong with a national (or state) day of prayer? First, Americans don’t need a congressional proclamation to tell them to pray; they already have a personal, constitutional right to pray – or not to pray – as they (not the government) see fit.</p><p align="left">Second, government is <em>not permitted</em> to be in the business of telling people whether to pray, when to pray or who to pray to.</p><p align="left">Third, the National Day of Prayer has become a vehicle for spreading religious misinformation and fundamentalist Christian doctrine under the aegis of the government – again precisely what the framers were seeking to prohibit.</p><p align="left">Feel free to pray or not pray today – not in response to a congressional proclamation but because you have a constitutional right to do either. But, if you choose to pray, you may want to ask that our elected officials begin to honor the letter and spirit of the First Amendment and respect the separation of church and state.</p><p align="left">After all, each previously swore an oath to do just that.</p><p align="left"> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/prayer-at-government-events-and-legislative-meetings">Prayer at Government Events and Legislative Meetings</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/national-day-prayer">National Day of Prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-dobson">James Dobson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/roger-williams">Roger Williams</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/thomas-jefferson">thomas jefferson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/george-washington">George Washington</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-madison">James Madison</a></span></div></div>Thu, 01 May 2014 13:33:02 +0000Rob Boston9917 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/state-sponsored-supplications-does-the-united-states-really-need-a-national#commentsRetreating Or Repositioning?: Southern Baptists And The ‘Culture War’https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/retreating-or-repositioning-southern-baptists-and-the-culture-war
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Is the Southern Baptist Convention surrendering in the &#039;culture war&#039;? Not quite. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>When the Religious Right started to become a prominent force in American politics in the late 1970s, its advocates had a major impact on the country’s largest Protestant denomination: the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).</p><p>Younger readers may be surprised to read that the SBC, which claims 16 million members, used to be fairly moderate on social issues. It strongly supported the separation of church and state, citing historical Baptist leaders like <a href="https://www.au.org/church-state/october-2004-church-state/featured/legacy-of-liberty">John Leland</a> and Isaac Backus.</p><p>But during the 1980s, the denomination fell to a well-organized fundamentalist bloc and flipped many of its positions. The SBC became closely aligned with the Religious Right and the Republican Party. It enlisted as a full-time combatant in the “culture war.”</p><p>In Washington, D.C., the SBC was represented by its lobbyist, Richard Land. Land pushed the denomination into even closer alignment with the GOP, often handicapping the prospects of Republican presidential candidates in the media. Land appeared at Religious Right meetings and never hesitated to reach for <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/extreme-lobbying-southern-baptists-richard-land-defends-nazi-analogies">the most lurid rhetoric</a>.</p><p>Land retired from the SBC in 2013. His successor, Russell Moore, is, according to a recent <em>Wall Street Journal</em><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424127887324755104579072722223166570-lMyQjAxMTAzMDIwMjEyNDIyWj"> profile,</a> interested in stepping back from the culture wars.</p><p>The <em>Journal</em> reports that Moore believes it is time to dial down the rhetoric and pull back from partisan politics. He cites a “visceral recoil” among younger evangelicals to heavy handed church-based politicking.</p><p>“We are involved in the political process, but we must always be wary of being co-opted by it,” Moore said. “Christianity thrives when it is clearest about what distinguishes it from the outside culture.”</p><p>OK, what’s really going on here? I suspect several factors are at play.</p><p>First of all, short of giving the job to <a href="http://ffcoalition.com/">Ralph Reed</a>, it would have been next to impossible for the SBC to have hired a replacement more extreme and more partisan than Land. This is the guy, after all, who <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/land-s-end-sort-of-beleaguered-southern-baptist-lobbyist-heads-for">once spoke</a> of his desire to “consummate” the relationship between right-wing evangelicals and the GOP, compared Hillary Clinton to a witch and called U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer that “schmuck from New York.”</p><p>In comparison to Land, just about anyone would look more moderate.</p><p>Secondly, the use of less strident language is nice, but it doesn’t mean that the SBC’s policy positions are going to change. In fact, the <em>Journal</em> article makes it clear that the SBC has no plans to soften any of its far-right stands on issues like religion in public education, LGBT rights, reproductive rights, etc.</p><p>Sure, they’ll talk nicer while they push for theocracy. Big deal.</p><p>Thirdly, some of this appears to be a public relations stunt. The leaders of the SBC know they have a problem with younger people, so they are toning down the rhetoric in the hopes that more congregants won’t jump ship. This may fool some people, but again, it’s not a change of policy. (See point two above.)</p><p>Over at the American Family Association, Bryan Fischer, the poor man’s Glenn Beck,<a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/perspectives/bryan-fischer/2013/10/23/southern-baptists-sounding-full-scale-retreat-in-culture-war#.UmfJnmvoApA.twitter"> is on the warpath</a>, asserting that Moore is leading the SBC into a position of surrender.</p><p>“Since one man’s ‘pullback’ is another’s ‘full-scale retreat,’ social conservatives have a right to raise questions about the new course Moore is setting for the SBC,” Fischer bemoaned. Elsewhere he added, “Moore seems to have forgotten that Christ has not called us to be nice but to be good. Nice people never confront evil, but good people do.”</p><p>But Fischer throws a fit every day. It’s what he’s paid to do – be perpetually outraged and outrageous. We can hardly look to him for sound analysis of any issue outside of how to build really strong tinfoil hats.</p><p>I don’t see this as a retreat in the culture wars by the SBC, and it’s certainly not a surrender. I’d call it a tactical repositioning.</p><p>So keep your guard up. I suspect we haven’t seen the last of the SBC’s salvos against the church-state wall.</p><p>P.S. Remember, not all Baptists agree with the SBC on church-state issues. Our good friends at the<a href="http://www.bjcpa.org/"> Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty </a>have stood alongside AU for years, arguing for the traditional Baptist principle of freedom of conscience for all.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/russell-moore">Russell Moore</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/richard-land">richard land</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/southern-baptist-convention">Southern Baptist Convention</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ralph-reed">ralph reed</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/baptist-joint-committee-religious-liberty">Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty</a></span></div></div>Wed, 23 Oct 2013 14:58:05 +0000Rob Boston9080 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/retreating-or-repositioning-southern-baptists-and-the-culture-war#commentsFive Brave Christian Clergy Who Opposed Church-State Unionhttps://au.org/media/in-the-news/five-brave-christian-clergy-who-opposed-church-state-union
<div class="field field-name-field-news-source field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Alternet</div></div></div>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:05:31 +0000Rob Boston6781 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/media/in-the-news/five-brave-christian-clergy-who-opposed-church-state-union#commentsSuperb Statute: Celebrate Religious Liberty January 16https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/superb-statute-celebrate-religious-liberty-january-16
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom is all about your right to choose your own faith instead of having one imposed on you by government.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Jan. 16 is National Religious Freedom Day.</p>
<p>The day was created by Congress in 1993, and every year the president issues a proclamation. (The 2011 proclamation hasn’t been released yet, but you can read the 2010 one <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-proclamation-religious-freedom-day">here</a>.) The day is designed to commemorate the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom on Jan. 16, 1786.</p>
<p>The<a href="http://www.au.org/resources/history/old-docs/virginia-statute-for.pdf"> Statute</a>, penned by Thomas Jefferson and pushed through the Virginia legislature by James Madison, disestablished the Anglican Church, banned church taxes and extended religious freedom to all. Considered a precursor to the First Amendment, the Statute is a key document in the development of church-state separation. It’s absolutely worth celebrating.</p>
<p>Alas, some Religious Right organizations are trying to use the day to promote their misguided ideas about the role of religion in public schools and government. One group, Gateways to Better Education, asserts on its website “Religious Freedom Day is not ‘celebrate-our-diversity day.’”</p>
<p>Actually, it is. If the Gateways people would actually take the time to reflect on Jefferson’s Statute, they would see that it’s all about your right to choose your own faith instead of having one imposed on you by government.</p>
<p>The Statute guarantees that “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”</p>
<p>Its net effect was to let a thousand theological flowers bloom. Prior to the Statute, people could be imprisoned in Virginia for publicly preaching doctrines that clashed with the established church. The Statute ended that and allowed all people to practice and share their faiths.</p>
<p>That sure sounds like diversity to me. And it’s a good thing.</p>
<p>And remember, the Statute means <em>all</em> religions – not just Christian faiths. When the measure was being deliberated, an attempt was made to limit its protections to Christians only. That failed. When he learned of this, Jefferson rejoiced. He later wrote that he was pleased that this gambit “was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, the infidel of every denomination.” (Yes, non-believers and skeptics – Jefferson’s got your back!)</p>
<p>You can celebrate National Religious Freedom Day by reading the <a href="http://www.au.org/resources/history/old-docs/virginia-statute-for.pdf">Virginia Statute</a>. In addition, here are some comments on religious liberty by <a href="http://www.au.org/resources/history/old-docs/with-sovereign-reverence.pdf">Jefferson</a> and <a href="http://www.au.org/resources/history/old-docs/what-god-has-put-asunder.pdf">Madison</a> that you might enjoy.</p>
<p>And don’t forget that many members of the clergy worked alongside Jefferson and Madison to end state-sponsored religion and free the human spirit. One of my favorites was the fiery Baptist preacher John Leland – an unsung hero of religious freedom who personally labored to end state-established churches in three states. Read more about Leland <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2004/10/legacy-of-libert.html">here</a>.</p>
<p>You can also celebrate National Religious Freedom Day by educating your fellow Americans. This <a href="http://religioninthepublicschools.com/">resource</a> published by Americans United gives accurate information about the role of religion in public schools. Pass a copy on to your favorite public school teacher or administrator.</p>
<p>Finally, here is the most important thing you can do to celebrate National Religious Freedom Day: Remember that there are people and groups in this country who, despite all of their talk about how much they respect religious liberty, believe only their religion is true and correct, and thus think they have the right to impose it on you through government action.</p>
<p>Honor the spirit of Jefferson, Madison and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom by redoubling your efforts to oppose them.</p>
<p>P.S. For a fuller treatment of the development of religious freedom in America, I recommend <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Godless-Constitution-Moral-Defense-Secular/dp/0393328376/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1295017048&amp;sr=1-1"><em>The Godless Constitution</em></a> by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore and my own <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Religious-Right-Wrong-Separation-Church/dp/1591021146/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1295017079&amp;sr=1-1"><em>Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church &amp; State</em></a>. For a look at contemporary church-state issues, try Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Piety-Politics-Right-Wing-Assault-Religious/dp/0307347494/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1295017143&amp;sr=1-1"><em>Piety &amp; Politics</em></a>. (Also, the 2011 White House proclamation is out and can he read <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/14/presidential-proclamation-religious-freedom-day">here</a>.)</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/history-and-origins-church-state-separation">History and Origins of Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/church-state-milestones">Church-State Milestones</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/gateways-better-education">gateways to better education</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-madison">James Madison</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/national-religious-freedom-day">National Religious Freedom Day</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/thomas-jefferson">thomas jefferson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/virginia-statute-religious-freedom">Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom</a></span></div></div>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:37:40 +0000Rob Boston2150 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/superb-statute-celebrate-religious-liberty-january-16#commentsLeland’s Lost Legacy: Southern Baptists Honor Foe Of Church-State Separation https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/leland%E2%80%99s-lost-legacy-southern-baptists-honor-foe-of-church-state-separation
<a href="/about/people/joseph-l-conn">Joseph L. Conn</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">&quot;The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.&quot;
--Elder John Leland</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Poor John Leland. He must be spinning like a top in his grave in Cheshire Cemetery in Cheshire, Mass.</p>
<p>You may not know Elder Leland, but you ought to. He was a Baptist preacher and <a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2004/10/legacy-of-libert.html">great stalwart </a>of civil and religious liberty in our nation’s founding period. An ardent ally and supporter of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, he railed against government meddling in matters of faith and demanded a complete separation of religion and government.</p>
<p>"Government,” he said, “should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely, and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians."</p>
<p>On Leland’s <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&amp;GRid=6792326">tombstone</a> are these words: “"Here lies the body of John Leland, 1754-1841, who labored sixty-seven years to promote piety and vindicate the civil and religious rights of men."</p>
<p>So why would Leland be troubled today?</p>
<p>The Southern Baptist Convention’s misnamed Ethics &amp; Religious Liberty Commission has <a href="http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=33708">just given </a>a “John Leland Award” to Alan Sears, head of the notorious <a href="http://www.au.org/resources/religious-right-research/organizations/alliance-defense-fund.html">Alliance Defense Fund</a> (ADF).</p>
<p>What?! Surely not a religious liberty award for the guy who leads a mega-bucks legal campaign to dismantle Jefferson’s (and Leland’s) wall of separation between church and state! Founded and funded by TV preachers, the ADF crusades for the Religious Right’s narrow-minded sectarian vision of America.</p>
<p>“One by one,” Sears once said, “more and more bricks that make up the artificial ‘wall of separation’ between church and state are being removed, and Christians are once again being allowed to exercise their constitutional right to equal access to public facilities and funding.”</p>
<p>Yup. That guy. It’s a little like giving Lindsay Lohan the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s “Woman of the Year Award.”</p>
<p>But it’s hardly surprising. You see, the Southern Baptist leadership has <a href="http://www.au.org/resources/religious-right-research/organizations/southern-baptist-convention.html">utterly abandoned</a> its historic support for church-state separation and thrown in with the theocracy-minded Religious Right. After a fundamentalist takeover in the early 1980s, the SBC moved to the hard right.</p>
<p>As one Baptist blogger <a href="http://thatbaptistaintright.blogspot.com/2010/09/when-baptists-supported-separation-of.html">lamented</a> yesterday, “I think it happened when Baptists realized they were no longer the persecuted minority but were the pious majority. Something happened after WWII when the Baptists were the Boom in Baby Boomers and took over as the largest Protestant denomination. We Baptists became the very thing we used to preach against.</p>
<p>“We Baptists,” the blogger continued, “were the initiators of Church-State Separation. It was our motto. It was in our DNA. It was who we were, what we were about (e.g., soul freedom and each person answerable to God alone) and the basis of our identity. Not any more.</p>
<p>“Starting in the 1970s and the rise of the Moral Majority, we Baptists became not the voice of Hope but the voice of a voting bloc that could be delivered by a group of pastors bent on a political agenda. We were not the Voice but the Vice. We stopped being the Compassionate Hand and became the Calloused Agenda. No longer did we serve the Master but the Mammon, the Power and the wishes of whatever political issue would sway us with pious words.</p>
<p>“Shame on those Southern Baptist pastors,” the blogger concluded, “that sold our Baptist soul for 30 pieces of silver ... and the ear of the politicians.”</p>
<p>Sounds like Elder John Leland still has faithful friends preaching as he did. Preach on, Brother Blogger, preach on.</p>
<p>We urge clergy of all faiths to stand up for church-state separation. It’s a constitutional principle that’s good for religion and good for America. And it’s under fire as never before.</p>
<p>John Leland would be the first one to arise and defend the church-state wall – and his spiritual descendants in the Baptist tradition should do so as well.</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/churches-and-politics">Churches and Politics</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alan-sears">Alan Sears</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/alliance-defense-fund-adf">Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ethics-amp-religious-liberty-commission">Ethics &amp;amp; Religious Liberty Commission</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/southern-baptist-convention">Southern Baptist Convention</a></span></div></div>Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:11:54 +0000Joseph L. Conn1621 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/leland%E2%80%99s-lost-legacy-southern-baptists-honor-foe-of-church-state-separation#commentsWords Of Liberty: Readings For Religious Freedom Dayhttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/words-of-liberty-readings-for-religious-freedom-day
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Leland said it well: &#039;Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics.&#039;</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Today is Religious Freedom Day. Why is this day important? Consider the following story: In 380 A.D., three Roman emperors of the east and west issued a joint edict on religion.</p>
<p>It stated in part, "We desire all people, whom the benign influence of our clemency rules, to turn to the religion which tradition from Peter to the present day declares to have been delivered to the Romans by blessed Peter the Apostle....We order those who follow this doctrine to receive the title of Catholic Christians, but others we judge to be mad, raving and worthy of incurring the disgrace of heretical teaching, nor are their assemblies to receive the name of churches. They are to be punished, not only be Divine retribution but by our own measures, which we have decided in accordance with Divine inspiration."</p>
<p>Not much toleration there! In fact, the edict was designed to stamp out Arianism, an early variant of Christianity that the emperors found offensive. I shudder to think what the "punishment" for Arians was, but, considering the times, we can assume it was rather grim.</p>
<p>Sadly, human history is full of stories like this. It is replete with tales of emperors, kings and magistrates who took it upon themselves to determine true orthodoxy – and to use the raw power of the state to impose it on everyone else and crush rival faiths.</p>
<p>How could the state survive without the prop of the church? For thousands of years it seemed unthinkable. Then along came thinkers like Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Leland, Isaac Backus and others who showed that there could be another way. Indeed, they argued that if you want real religious freedom, the first step is to separate church and state. Radical? You bet!</p>
<p>Leland said it well: "Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics."</p>
<p>Celebrate Religious Freedom Day by reading some of the great documents of religious liberty. Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Liberty is a <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/va_statute_for_religious_freedom.pdf?docID=1321">good place to start</a>. Many scholars see the Virginia Statute, which ended the established church in Virginia, as the inspiration for the First Amendment.</p>
<p>You might follow that with James Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments." This <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/James_Madisons_Memorial_and_Remonstrance.pdf?docID=144">powerful document</a> lists 15 arguments against government-sponsored religion. All remain relevant today.</p>
<p>Of course, Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists is a must-read. Be sure to also read the letter from the Baptists to Jefferson; it will help you understand the context for Jefferson's famous reply. Both are <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Thomas_Jeffersons_Letter_To_The_Danburry_Baptists.pdf?docID=142">here</a>.</p>
<p>George Washington's eloquent Letter to Touro Synagogue is an important reminder that the founders sought no Christian nation. In <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Washingtons_Letter_To_Touro_Synagogue.pdf?docID=146">the missive</a>, Washington reminds Jews that their religious beliefs and rights will always be respected in America.</p>
<p>Americans United also has a list of religious freedom quotes by <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/jefferson_quotes.pdf?docID=761">Jefferson </a>and <a href="http://www.au.org/site/DocServer/Madison.pdf?docID=141">Madison</a> that are well worth your time.</p>
<p>Savor these words of freedom. Happy Religious Freedom Day!</p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/history-and-origins-church-state-separation">History and Origins of Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/church-state-milestones">Church-State Milestones</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/james-madison">James Madison</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/john-leland">John Leland</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religious-freedom-day">Religious Freedom Day</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/thomas-jefferson">thomas jefferson</a></span></div></div>Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:38:46 +0000Rob Boston1941 at https://au.orghttps://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/words-of-liberty-readings-for-religious-freedom-day#comments